My first experience with iOS.

[Probenja]

Well let me start with this: This is my first experience with an iOS device (for longer than a couple of minutes) so forgive me if I say something wrong, but this is my opinion, so here we go:

So, the device that I got for free 6 months ago now has to be returned, I spent it using it as much as I could even ignoring my netbook while traveling, the device is a 1st gen iPad mini 32gb with cellular in slate (black) color.

 

Design: IMO the design Is very well executed, as with most apple products, it feels solid although the thin and light body makes it feel a little bit fragile but you get used to (haven’t used it with a case), the materials are of very high quality and the only plastic you see is in the home button and the antenna at the top which are also quite nice quality. I think this color looks better than the new “space grey” one and while it may not be as scratch resistant I had no issues with it, although the chamfered edges do get dinged up and the soft aluminum has chipped off on the headphone jack area. The buttons feel great and the headphone/lightning ports are nice and stiff.

 

Cameras: The least important part of a tablet so let me say that they are ok but you do look stupid taking photos with it.

 

Ports: One gripe that I have is the non-standard lightning connector, yes it is much better than micro usb but the included cable sucks and the adapters cost a fortune! Hopefully Apple will adopt usb someday but for now it is the only brand who has these exclusive kind of cable (no external storage for cheap for you!).

 

Audio: It impressed me it was loud in both the headphone jack and speakers although obviously the speakers had no bass and the worst part is that they are not front facing, why apple, why? Also the mic was good for making skype calls.

 

Display: every review shitted on the display but I disagree, yes it is not retina (although now it is in the 2nd and 3rd gen) but it is bright and has nice colors, although it is a fingerprint magnet as with most glossy touch displays out there. And for web browsing the aspect ratio is great although you will get black bars when watching a video but it is not a big deal.

 

Performance: it is a mixed bag, it has I believe the same cpu as the iPhone 4s but with better graphics so it does slowdown in games and even the animations inside ios 8 but the worst part is the 512mb of ram, this thing is not able to have 2 tabs of chrome before either crashing or freezing the other tabs and having to reload, also multitasking sucks I don’t know if that is an iOS feature or the device fault but multitasking in android works so much smoother even in a device with the same amount of ram.

 

OS: Now as I said this is my first experience with an iOS device and first I am going to say the thing I like, the apps are really well made, all of them were really pretty and were cohesive with the design language of the OS, but man it is confusing to go from a device with a back button, home and multitasking to one with a single button that has 3 funtions one tap to go home which thanks to the lack of ram when I go back to the app it has to start over, two taps for multitasking and press and hold for siri (which btw It works really well if you live in the US, which I don’t) the back button is inside the app and some apps have it in different places which confuses me, also sometimes to get to options you have to long press, other times you have to swipe, why can’t be a options menu inside all apps? But again most questions got resolved thanks for the popularity of the os, a quick google search cleared my questions. Another important thing is that this device launched in late 2012 and is now running a pretty stable version of the latest iOS 8.1.2 and that is impressive, although you do notice running much slower and crashing more often than the iOS 6 that it came out, for comparison my Motorola phone launched in early 2013 is running 4.4.2 which is not the latest version of android and it is not 100% stable. Something else that there is much less crap in the app store compared to android and windows which is a really good thing for novice users.

 

In conclusion I feel that this device is going to be better with apple people, I didn’t fully got used to it and iTunes in windows still sucks and I think if you had a Mac + iPad + iPhone + AppleTV + iTunes your experience would be much better because it does feel like it was designed to live in that environment and I just have this one, which can’t even communicate to my phone or transfer data (unless they are photos) without using a program made by its parent company, I would totally recommend to anyone who owns at least 2 more apple devices but as it is I would much rather have an expandable, cheaper although with a more limited app store android or windows tablet.

[thekeemo]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

[NeoZeon]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

 

Guess I'm stupid, lazy or old and rich

[mathijs727]

coming form experience:

iTunes on Mac is just as stupid and slow, not even starting about iPhone (i have prob about 200 photo's in it and it's slow as f*ck).

My iPad and iPhone both have 1GB RAM and even that's too low. They can hardly keep track of 2 tabs without closing it's really annoying. They should stop being ingorant and put 2GB in iPhone and 3GB in iPad (and do that a year ago).

 

Personally i just can't stand the lack of quality in Android apps and the random performance drops of it.

I used WP8 too, but it just misses to many apps and, at least at the time, ie10 didnt work well with all websites.

[minibois]

iTunes makes all Apple products horrible. And their pricing and restrictions in the OS (IMO)

[mathijs727]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

Or for people that just want something that works and where the third party apps are consistent.

[thekeemo]

Or for people that just want something that works and where the third party apps are consistent.

aka arent willing to do any extra work aka lazy people

[Probenja]

coming form experience:

iTunes on Mac is just as stupid and slow, not even starting about iPhone (i have prob about 200 photo's in it and it's slow as f*ck).

My iPad and iPhone both have 1GB RAM and even that's too low. They can hardly keep track of 2 tabs without closing it's really annoying. They should stop being ingorant and put 2GB in iPhone and 3GB in iPad (and do that a year ago).

 

Personally i just can't stand the lack of quality in Android apps and the random performance drops of it.

I used WP8 too, but it just misses to many apps and, at least at the time, ie10 didnt work well with all websites.

I know right, why can't they make a program called folders where you can drag and drop any kind of file without syncing it, or maybe even better, an sd card slot.

 

I agree on the quality of android apps, i just stick to the most popular ones because the other ones are either badly made or scams, my mom has a windows phone and i couldn't find all of the apps that i use daily so it is a no go for me sadly because the user interface looks pretty imo.

[NeoZeon]

aka arent willing to do any extra work aka lazy people

 

 

I work 60-70 hours a week. Some people just choose to do different things with their time. I think you are intellectually lazy by not considering the other options, but perhaps you are not and are just trolling. 

[thekeemo]

I work 60-70 hours a week. Some people just choose to do different things with their time. I think you are intellectually lazy by not considering the other options, but perhaps you are not and are just trolling. 

you took it the wrong way I didnt mean lazy in general

[jayctech]

Meh. iOS feels too much like a cage for me and I don't have any performance issues on my Nexus 7 or my Note2 running a custom ROM.

[Probenja]

you took it the wrong way I didnt mean lazy in general

 

I understand, it is lazy because it is pretty much set up the moment you turn it on because there is not much else to do appart from installing apps which will usually work the first time so there isn't even any motivation to keep looking for something that may work better. Android in the other hand you can be weeks tweaking what shade of orange you want your system ui to be.

[Mew]

It's sad that you didn't know about the iPad gestures, they make multitasking much smoother and natural. http://ipad.about.com/od/iPad_Guide/tp/A-List-of-iPad-Gestures.htm

[Probenja]

It's sad that you didn't know about the iPad gestures, they make multitasking much smoother and natural. http://ipad.about.com/od/iPad_Guide/tp/A-List-of-iPad-Gestures.htm

I do, sadly it was easier to me to press the button multiple times untill i got to where i wanted than sitting upright in my bed, put 4 fingers on the screen and then realize it didn't work half the time (maybe it was a hardware issue) or it was slow to respond, also i found the tapping on the top bar to scroll up was annoying because i would always accidentaly hit it. One that i did found helpful is the triple tap to invert colours so at night you don't get blinded on white websites and also the million acessibility features that i didn't use but hey at least they hopefully help someone who has problems using the device.

[othertomperson]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

 

Oh noes a flagship smartphone that's priced identically to all other flagship smartphones. Such expensive. Very rip-off.

[Victorious Secret]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

 

Well...

I'm not rich, I'm young and I somehow still use iOS without feeling the need to judge others or somehow prove my superiority. 

God fucking forbid that people actually like using iOS. Just like people like using Android. Or WinMo. Or BB. I know its hard for juvenile minds to understand that concept. 

[thekeemo]

Well...

I'm not rich, I'm young and I somehow still use iOS without feeling the need to judge others or somehow prove my superiority. 

God fucking forbid that people actually like using iOS. Just like people like using Android. Or WinMo. Or BB. I know its hard for juvenile minds to understand that concept. 

still people taking it the wrong way....

[RichardsD]

aka arent willing to do any extra work aka lazy people

 

Damn right.

 

This is my view.  I have to fuck with computers all day, I did IT training so obviously I'm a bloody magnet to fix every humans PC on this earth.

 

So despite this, I have an I-Phone.  Because you are absolutely right, I am lazy with phones.  Because frankly, I just don't care enough to have a baller phone with all these cool custom apps and so forth.  For me, I text people, get... hmm.. er.. photos, and use Safari to read the CBC every morning.  I have 1 game for extenuating circumstances of bordeom, and I've never really needed my phone for anything more.  Whenever I have my phone, I usually am  either at a PC, or have my powerful i7 laptop with me.

 

That's my view, though.

[Speedyv]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

 

ignorant

[SpaceSquid]

Itunes in a nutshell for me,

 

sync like 50 albums to my iPad a few years ago

get a new computer that doesn't have a copy of the albums

try to sync an ebook to my iPad to read when I was travelling

forced to delete the 50 albums on my iPad just to sync an ebook

[elkenrod]

I have an iphone, and I have concluded that it's only useful for facetime with my girlfriend.

[NeoZeon]

you took it the wrong way I didnt mean lazy in general

 

How else was someone supposed to take it? Where in your post did you make a specific, rather than general, claim. Stop blaming others. 

[Kazooey]

coming form experience:

iTunes on Mac is just as stupid and slow, not even starting about iPhone (i have prob about 200 photo's in it and it's slow as f*ck).

My iPad and iPhone both have 1GB RAM and even that's too low. They can hardly keep track of 2 tabs without closing it's really annoying. They should stop being ingorant and put 2GB in iPhone and 3GB in iPad (and do that a year ago).

 

Personally i just can't stand the lack of quality in Android apps and the random performance drops of it.

I used WP8 too, but it just misses to many apps and, at least at the time, ie10 didnt work well with all websites.

 

I dont really get that though. I have an Iphone 5s, and I must say, Im an absolute tab whore. I normally have between 20-30 tabs open in chrome at one time, and the transition between them is seemless. I can go from an emulator to a game that I had open last week perfectly.

 

Call me an apple fanboy, but thats just how it works for me.

[Guest]

in essence its made for

 

1) rich lazy people

2) rich old people

3) rich stupid people

Yeah, a $249 tablet is for some seriously rich people!

[Guest]

I dont really get that though. I have an Iphone 5s, and I must say, Im an absolute tab whore. I normally have between 20-30 tabs open in chrome at one time, and the transition between them is seemless. I can go from an emulator to a game that I had open last week perfectly.

 

Call me an apple fanboy, but thats just how it works for me.

I know! Specs don't cross evenly between iOS and Android. iOS runs better on 1GB of RAM than an Android phone does on 3, just like a 1.5GHz dual-core A8 can beat a ~2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800.